


your body language is so persuasive

by towokuwusatsuwu



Category: Kamen Rider Build
Genre: Affection, Cat/Human Hybrids, Cuddling & Snuggling, Developing Relationship, Dragon Hybrids, Established Relationship, Hybrids, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-28
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-29 01:51:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14462463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/towokuwusatsuwu/pseuds/towokuwusatsuwu
Summary: In a moment between the chaos and the battles, Kazumi tries to groom Sento's ears.





	your body language is so persuasive

**Author's Note:**

> Build might have drained me and forced me to take a break but I'm back and Build even added a cute new boy to write about whomst I love.

Banjo Ryuga does not consider himself to be a particularly possessive person. Affection is shared freely around Nascita and he enjoys getting as much as he enjoys giving; the lot of them are a found family in more ways than one and he likes spending time with the people he has grown to care for so deeply. That occasionally means falling asleep with his head in Sawa’s lap, for instance, while she pets his hair while sorting through her notes. It used to mean curling a wing around Soichi’s shoulders when he shivered, not quite cut out for the colder temperatures, which Ryuga found interesting. It means letting Misora sleep on his back, stealing the warmth of his wings.

Some affection is saved solely for Sento, of course. Ryuga shares affection freely but there is only one person he curls up next to at night to sleep, only one person he kisses with such freedom and confidence. His life had been full of heartache and after losing Kasumi, a part of him believed it might be safer for him to lock his heart away from anyone else interesting in gaining a piece of it if only to spare himself the pain.

Sento had given him a reason to open up, though. Sento and his brilliance, his belief in love and peace and kindness, his willingness to help anyone and everyone who crossed his path. Ryuga’s first impression of Sento had been that he was smug and cocky, but now Ryuga can see him for who he truly is, and he can’t help but feel his heart swell every time he so much as thinks of the rabbit who had hopped right into the center of his universe.

Ryuga is not possessive, and Ryuga does not consider himself jealous. Still, he feels his eyes narrow as he watches Kazumi kneel behind Sento’s back, careful not to disturb Sento as he works, fingers tinkering with more complicated technology. Every time they gain more power, Sento adapts a weapon for them; Ryuga admires his strength and his ability to put the pieces together in such a way because he himself is hopeless in comparison.

He bites back the urge to tell Kazumi to leave Sento alone and let him work because he knows that Kazumi is new here, and that snapping at him will only cause more problems in the long run. Kazumi and Misora are both cats, and so Ryuga thought it would be simple to adapt to having another cat in the cafe. Kazumi is not like Misora in all ways, of course; he’s all over all of them at a moment’s notice and often without warning, and Ryuga keeps reminding himself that Kazumi has lost a lot, and this is probably just a reaction to that loss.

After all, none of them had known Kazumi prior to his abrupt entry into their lives.

“Kazumi?” Sento freezes, his ears twitching uncertainly, his hands hovering over his in-progress creation. He looks like a prey animal trapped by a predator. “What are you doing behind me?”

Kazumi pouts at his back and Ryuga rolls his eyes at the sight. “I’m not trying to do anything bad, honestly. You all think the worst of me.” He noses the back of Sento’s neck, which only makes Sento jump a little. “I just wanted to groom your ears for you.”

“You wanted to  _ what? _ ” Sento demands, twisting around to look up at him.

Ryuga feels that familiar urge to shove himself to his feet and get between the two of them because the way Sento’s eyebrows are furrowed and the tension in his muscles shows just how much displeasure he carries right now. He holds himself back because he knows better than to get between them, to make Kazumi feel even more like a stranger in the cafe when he lives here with them now. The right thing to do is to let them figure this out themselves.

Kazumi sits back on his heels, his tail twitching in what feels like annoyance. “Your ears. Mii-tan never grooms them for you and you get all wrapped up in your work and don’t always take care of them. I thought I could do it for you. I used to do it for…”

He trails off, folding his arms over his chest, but Ryuga knows who he means, and Sento’s expression softens, which means he must know, too. There are still moments in the peace and quiet where Kazumi’s grief wraps itself around his heart and refuses to let him go, moments when they have to distract him, to pry him free from its cold icy grip to remind him that he, at least, is warm and safe here, and that they are here for him.

The thought makes Ryuga feel bad for feeling so defensive in the first place.

Sento sighs and scratches behind one of his ears. “Oh, I suppose you’re right. I don’t always have time to take proper care of them.”

“So you’ll let me do it?” Kazumi’s ears prick up high, his tail swishing through the air behind him, all sleek dark brown fur, a sharp contrast to Misora’s fluffy black tail.

“I don’t see the harm. Just don’t touch my shoulders if you can help it, I have to be careful so that I don’t make any mistakes.” Sento turns around to return to his engineering, and Kazumi slinks up to his back, leaning over him carefully.

Misora has never groomed Sento’s ears, this much is true, but Ryuga had never seen Sento forget to take care of them. He had been so wrapped up in everything that had surrounded them the last few months that he hadn’t noticed Sento forgetting the little things, and yet Kazumi had noticed instead. The thought gives him pause; Kazumi had noticed something small he could do to help Sento, and he had offered it so freely. Maybe it gives him a sense of peace as well given the fact that none of his boys are with him any longer.

Ryuga returns to the comic book sitting on his lap, tossed in his direction when he tried to pester Sento for attention earlier. He barely has time to focus on the story when a sudden deep rumbling disturbs him, making him drop the book onto the floor as he jerks his head up.

In retrospect, he feels like an idiot for being surprised at the noise given how many times he has heard it before, just a quieter and softer version. Misora had purred often for as long as Ryuga has known her, even when life had been impossibly hard on all of them, even when she had lost the man she considered her father. Her favorite foods, a good nap, ear skritches, or Sawa’s arms around her have always made her purr, a deep vibration in her chest that rumbles up her throat and never fails to bring a smile to both Ryuga and Sento’s faces.

Kazumi’s purr is deeper, and louder he thinks, and scratchy-sounding enough that Ryuga realizes he has never heard the sound before. They have all done their part to help Kazumi mourn, have been shoulders for him when he needs to cry and arms for him when he wants to be held, and Ryuga has offered his wings more than once to keep him warm. It has never occurred to Ryuga, not once, that he has never heard Kazumi purr.

“That’s a surprising sound,” Sento says without looking up from his work. “You’ve never made it before now, did you know that?”

Kazumi pauses in his grooming, his tail twitching thoughtfully. “I haven’t been paying attention, but you’re the genius, so I guess you would know that if it was true.”

“I was worried, actually, that maybe you just… Wouldn’t ever. I kept thinking we must have been doing something wrong, or maybe you just didn’t like staying with us.” Sento laughs and Ryuga frowns because the sound is wrong, not at all like Sento’s true laugh.

In response, Kazumi huffs against the back of his head. “I like staying with you all just fine. It’s the first time I’ve felt like I have people I care about since they died.”

The mention of Kazumi’s boys is like a gut-punch and Ryuga picks up his comic, tries not to make a big show out of the fact he was listening in just a moment ago. None of this is any of his business; he just happens to be in the same room because being away from Sento for too long no longer seems like such an attractive option. Not when Ryuga can bask in his presence and his smile and watch his face light up with each new discovery.

He might be farther gone than even he thinks he is.

“But still. You know, I’ve done research on cat hybrids ever since I came to live here because I wanted to understand Misora better, and cat hybrids that are well taken care of purr very often. You never had.” Sento abandons the weapon in front of him for just a moment, reaching around behind him, fingers twisting in the bottom of Kazumi’s sweater. “But now that I’ve heard you purr, I feel… At ease. Like I don’t have to worry about you so much anymore.”

Kazumi sighs and licks Sento’s ear. “Stop worrying about me. I’ll be okay now. I have the lot of you and it’s actually not as bad as I thought it would be with that grumpy nosy dragon of yours.”

“I’m not nosy!” Ryuga slaps his comic book down on the floor and Kazumi gives him a look. “I just happen to be in the same room. You’re the one who just waltzed in a few minutes ago.”

Sento sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You two—”

“I was teasing you, wings.” Kazumi inspects Sento’s ears for a moment and must consider it a job well done because the next thing Ryuga knows, Kazumi slinks down onto the floor and crawls over to him, all slow and suggestive body sways. “You’re too sensitive. I’d only tease you like this if I liked you, after all.”

Ryuga tries for a response and manages nothing before Kazumi is suddenly in his lap, pressing the top of his head under Ryuga’s chin, his ears and hair tickling Ryuga’s skin. It’s habit more than anything else that Ryuga pulls Kazumi against his chest, and he feels uncomfortably warm when Kazumi purrs loud and long against his throat, his tail curling around Ryuga’s wrist.

Sento’s eyes dance as he turns to look at them, curling a hand beneath his chin. “Now isn’t that cute. For a reptile, you sure do have a fondness for furry creatures.”

“Shut up!” Ryuga’s voice carries none of the force he tries to inject it with; rather, it comes out pitiful and half-squeaked while Kazumi presses his lips against Ryuga’s throat, his purrs vibrating against Ryuga’s skin. “He’s— It’s— You’re not wrong, I guess.”

To his surprise, Sento abandons his work and walks across the floor to them, dropping down at Ryuga’s side and curling in against him. “My hands were starting to get a little sore anyway, and there’s still a lot of work to go. Warm me up. It’s good for my joints.”

Instead of arguing, Ryuga curls a wing around Sento, watching him settle into the warm scales like he has a thousand times before, looking perfectly content as he noses Ryuga’s shoulder. He wraps the other wing around Kazumi, because he can, and because Kazumi is close enough, and really, he has plenty of warmth to go around, so why not share it?

“I always liked reptiles,” Kazumi murmurs up at him.

Ryuga sighs, exasperated, and kisses him on the forehead. “You don’t mean that but it’s a nice sentiment anyway.”

He ends up trapped when Sento and Kazumi fall asleep against him.


End file.
